


Soulmates? In this Economy?!

by Abyssiniana



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, College, Gaming, Hopeless pining, Keith & Lance (Voltron) are Roommates, M/M, Minor Allura/Lance (Voltron), Monsters & Mana (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-30
Updated: 2020-04-30
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:55:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23928745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Abyssiniana/pseuds/Abyssiniana
Summary: All the laws of thermodynamics he had memorized in the past hours left his mind to be replaced by a very familiar, very dear face, along with a twinge in his chest. He imagined the person smiling and the vacant hole in Keith’s heart only increased.But what was the point of believing that the stars willed an encounter with someone carved out of perfection, if you couldn’t have them in the end? If Keith did have a soulmate, he knew exactly who that was, and destiny was having a sadistic blast with him, since it wasn’t corresponded, anyway.What was a dumb video game going to do about that, huh?—In which Monsters & Mana is a soulmate matchmaking videogame.—My piece for Star-Crossed, a Sheith Soulmate Zine, which is available for download at the zine'sTumblr page!
Relationships: BroKlance - Relationship, Keith/Shiro (Voltron)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 86
Collections: Star-Crossed: Sheith Soulmate Zine 2020





	Soulmates? In this Economy?!

In a messy college bedroom where a hurricane named Finals Week left nothing but chaos in its path —with open textbooks, empty containers of Chinese take-out and scattered unmatched socks— Keith Kogane and Lance McClain dreaded each other’s presence.

“No.”

“Come on, man!”

“ _ Absolutely the fuck not. _ I’m not doing anything of the sort.”

“But it’s for your own good!”

“ _ I _ get to decide what’s better for me, Lance, not  _ you. _ ”

Despite having known each other since their kindergarten days and having become something close to “friends” to the eyes of anyone else, it was still hard to deal with Lance being an awful annoying roommate in college.

Such bad luck resonated with Keith’s generally unfortunate history, as they kept bumping into each other’s path: from being neighbours to attending the same middle and high schools and then majoring in Astrophysics and sharing a bedroom the size of a tuna can with Lance; only the messiest, most egocentric, lazy ass guy Keith had ever known.

But nothing could get between Keith and finishing this first-year class. He had failed the exam two years in a row; if he wanted to move on to the fourth and final year, he’d need to have a clean slate and not have any other course holding him back.

Not even  _ Lance McFucktardLain _ .

“Now, if you’re done with this soulmate bullshit, I would like to study some,” Keith sighed, bending over the  _ Thermodynamics and Matter _ book and the notes he had on his laptop, actually dedicating some time to try to understand some of the words in there. “And maybe you should too.”

“As a matter of fact, I am not done yet,” Lance said after a few minutes, reaching under his bed to pick his laptop with determination, a grin on his stupid face.

_ Whatever _ . Keith shook his head and took some notes, trying to focus on his studies. The silence he got felt like a victory and gave him precious moments to learn anything he could about the kinetic theory of gases before the final exam in only a few hours. It felt surreal that yet another school year had passed and he still hasn’t kicked the damn subject in the balls. He shuddered at the remaining time until the morning of the exam.

It felt like hours had passed, but once Keith was done filling the mock-exam sheet he had downloaded from previous years and checked if his answers were correct, he leaned back on the chair and stretched his back and arms.

“You done?” Lance asked from the lower bunk, voice monotonous like a pouty child.

A sigh, “I guess. I’m as ready as I can be for tomorrow.”

“Great!” The springs of the bed complained at the sudden harsh motion Lance made to get up. Lance’s laptop was set in front of Keith and on top of his notebooks, the home screen of a medieval-themed game occupying the whole screen with a catchy bard song and big bold letters that read:  _ Monsters & Mana _ . “Now you have time to find your soulmate!”

“Dude, I told you I don’t give a fuck about that!” It took the last itsy bitsy strain of respect Keith held for his roommate to not smash the computer flat on the ground and step on it. 

“Just give it a try! What have you got to lose?” Lance insisted, and Keith might have seen  _ red _ . A fist landed on the desk, causing the laptop to tilt too close to the edge of the table, some writing supplies to roll to the floor, and Lance to jump backwards.

“This shitty society is so brainwashed to believe that there’s someone out there for everyone, but guess what, sometimes there just  _ isn’t _ ! Sometimes you’re doomed to walk the Earth alone, and some people, such as me, are just  _ fine _ with that!”

“Wow, Keith,” Lance sighed, faux pity hanging from his lips in the shape of a pout, “are you really just that sad?”

One of the loose socks from the carpeted floor was thrown right at Lance’s face, who dramatically coughed and spat to the air, disgust painted all over his face. “Ew, gross, Keith, that one was yours!”

“Maybe that’s just the taste of your own words.”

“You didn’t have to toss my computer to the ground though,” Lance complained, picking up the device. That had Keith cringing and feeling an inch of guilt down his throat; the laptop wasn’t too badly damaged. No new scratches, at least, and no screw was any looser than before, but it did spit out the CD from the reader, causing it to roll all the way across the room.

“I uh. I’m sorry,” he stammered, hurrying after the CD since Lance had the computer safe, set once again on the desk. The CD itself was in an awful state, the heavily scratched holographic reflection showing a very concerned Keith; at least it wasn’t broken.

“Now we have to test the game to see if it’s still alright,” Lance smirked, and Keith…

Well, Keith gave in.

* * *

“So this game, it’s kind of a super underground, bootleg, matchmaking version of  _ Dungeons & Dragons _ .” Good god, Lance was still  _ talking _ . Keith was sitting back at his desk, notebooks aside and pencil case ready for the exam the next morning, head aching. “I’m sure you’ll relate to the ‘Monster’ bit, Keith.”

Keith created a goddamned username and signed up by pressing the ‘enter’ key. “Fuck you.”

Overall, the game was okay…  _ -ish _ . It glitched a little, the image scratched, some data unreadable, but Lance assured him that when he had first bought it, second hand, it was already partly damaged. It ought to be enough to still run the game, for better or for worse.

The screen faded from medieval-looking landscapes to the interior of taverns and previews of boss fights. It didn’t look too bad if Keith were to be honest. It seemed to be action-packed, with a fulfilling plot and interesting places to digitally explore.

But there was some sort of condition to unlock all those cool areas in the game; you needed a player two. From black, a little paragraph faded into view:

**_Your soulmate is the light of your life; your raison-d’etre, your joy. Your beginning and your end. Everyone’s out to look for their other half, but could you really tell if you’ve found them if they were standing right in front of you?_ **

“Luckily for dense fuckers like you,” Lance illustrated his point by tapping Keith’s forehead with two fingers, “the game does the hard work for you; trust me on this!”

All the laws of thermodynamics he had memorized in the past hours left his mind to be replaced by a very familiar, very dear face, along with a twinge in his chest. He imagined the person smiling and the vacant hole in Keith’s heart only increased.

But what was the point of believing that the stars willed an encounter with someone carved out of perfection, if you couldn’t have them in the end? If Keith  _ did _ have a soulmate, he knew exactly who that was, and destiny was having a sadistic blast with him, since it wasn’t corresponded, anyway.

What was a dumb video game going to do about that, huh?

Immediately after the sign-up, the player was taken to a create-your-avatar screen. The controls were fairly simple —body modification regulators, cosmetic add-ons, clothing, tattoos and markings, and so on— but Keith had no patience for petty customizations. Luckily, as Lance pointed out, the game had a feature that allowed webcam access for a quick picture, which would generate the looks of a character automatically. That would do; he tried not looking too much like the piece of shit he felt and even smiled a little for the image capture. “So… What’s your character about?” He asked Lance.

“Keith, Keith, my brother, I don’t need a game to play the third wheel. I have my princess already!”

That earned him an eye roll from Keith. “Ahh, right, how could I forget. Did your so-called princess acknowledge your mere existence yet?”

“Not quite yet, but! I’m going to crash a fourth-year party tonight and I’m certain she’s gonna be there. Pidge, that nerd from the library, she got me Allura’s number—” He patted the back of his pants and his pockets in search of his smartphone. Not finding it, he resorted to throwing everything off his bunk bed to look for the device. “Ah, damn. I left my phone charging in the library! What if she replied to me and I didn’t get back to her?!”

“Better hurry, then, you don’t want an evil wizard to play with her and steal your ‘soulmate’ from you.”

“See, you’re getting in the mood for the game! But no one will steal Allura from me, that’s the whole point; we’re made for each other. We don’t fit anyone else!”

Keith’s reply was a non-committal muttered version of an “of course”.

Lance removed his pyjama pants and Keith preferred to stop looking over his shoulder, focusing once again on the game. The resemblance between him and the Barbarian was rather spooky; the length of his hair was exaggerated, but he didn’t mind that. What he did change was the colour of his eyes —yellow was  _ dope _ — and added this hood/coat thing of the pelt of a blue wolf — that was dope as fuck too. A scar cut the avatar’s cheek in a way that looked badass, so Keith accepted that as well.

Onwards to the weapon selection.

Keith’s belly grumbled unpleasantly, an ache associated with the several hours he spent without eating anything at all. Right; he needed some dinner.

“Hey, Lance? Take my meal card, get me something to eat, and a lemonade or something.” Just before Lance could reach the card Keith pulled from his wallet, he retreated it. “For  _ me _ , you hear? I’m not paying you any more sandwiches.”

“We’ll see about that. Set yourself up on  _ M&M _ in the meantime! I’ll be right back!”

The dorm room slammed shut when his roommate left, the noise echoing in the corridor. Keith winced at that but shrugged it off to look back at the game. The weapon design was pretty awesome, he concluded; the choices ranged from a gigantic waraxe to a pair of daggers, and even some type of primal magic. The daggers seemed appealing enough, and thus he went with that choice. 

Once more, the screen drifted to black, and with the same lettering as before, the game continued its introduction:

**_Find in this world what you are too blind to see in yours; the love of your life. Your soulmate._ **

_ What fucking bullcrap. Skip to the part where I get to behead monsters. _

The initial bit of the game was a tedious tutorial that covered the basics of movement, fighting and interaction. They were very similar to any other video game he had played before: WASD, right and left click, E to interact, left control key to crouch, Q to activate his special power and so on. All the while, the system was allegedly scanning the database of user subscriptions to find “the one” for  _ ThunderstormDarkness _ , the Barbarian.

Maybe he should have gone with a different name than the one he used online since he was like, what, eleven? That was his  _ Club Penguin _ username, for crying out loud; a possible soulmate wouldn’t be too impressed with that, now would they?

That was to say he would be matched up to anyone at all; all the scratches on the CD may have glitched the matchmaking system. He laughed at that and shook his head.

_ Yeah, right. _

A pop up on the game advised Keith to gain some experience on his own by exploring the Spring Forest, and his character was teleported there. The leaves of the trees were blue, the grass of a pale lilac, little lights hanging where the flowers should be. The sunset fell behind the trees, a hue of orange and red gradually dyeing into dark blue, and activating a cold fog, the lack of light evidencing darker presences.  _ ThunderstormDarkness _ strode forward, ready for what the forest had in store for him.

Before long, Keith’s experience bar was rising exponentially, with each slashing and cutting of his daggers, each monster falling at his feet in a trail of digital goo. The character learned new skills and gained some boosts with each level, the deeper he moved into the forest. 

There was no map to guide him, so really, Keith was just slashing his way around, until he came across a little wooden house with lights. The typography of the game itself was a gibberish of symbols rather than a romanized alphabet, but the torches at the entrance made it look… welcoming.

Ah, he spotted the carved wooden sign with a mug of beer and a bed. A tavern or an inn, then.

It seemed like the next logical stop for  _ ThunderstormDarkness _ . The character stored his daggers in their respective sheaths on his lower back, walking forward to enter the establishment.

It appeared to be a neutral server room, with several other players, quest boards, merchants with essential items and a general chat room. The others showed off their heavily farmed armour, obtained only by gathering a certain type of rare crystals and taking it to a special NPC blacksmith to have it forged; a circle of bards sang and played their lutes, singing songs of glory and valour; elves sharpening their blades; mages gaining experience by reading collectable tomes, but what caught Keith’s eye was the HP restoring food the tavern owners were advertising.

And only because it was nearly ten and Lance hadn’t returned with his dinner yet.  _ What the fuck. _ Leaving his character unattended, he picked up his smartphone and called the idiot. Had he gotten lost even with the several on-campus arrows with directions? How hard was it to carry a wrapped sandwich and a drink? 

For Lance, apparently that was a high difficulty quest. And as predicted, he didn’t answer the phone either, prompting Keith to stop rubbing his eyes and get up to try and find Lance —rather, his food.  _ Fuck Lance _ , at that point.

A notification sound erupting from  _ Monsters & Mana _ halted Keith halfway across the room. A glance at the screen had him noticing a little square on the lower right corner, a private chat.

**_Hey @thunderstormdarkness_ ** , the user named  _ Jiro_01 _ typed,  **_You up for a dungeon run?_ **

He searched the names above the heads of the avatars, trying to locate this  _ Jiro_01 _ guy, finding him right next to the bulletin board with requests from villagers in desperate need for help. The character resembled a knight, with a cape, heavy armour and a sword hanging from his waist. He hovered the mouse pointer on the name, which revealed a thing or two about the character.

**Jiro. Lvl -** 403\.  **Class -** Paladin.  **Allegiance -** Holy Order of the White Lion. Blah blah, some history about a master and training and character concept bullshit, achievements, and:  **Soulmate:** UNASSIGNED.

Hah. So this poor user was a loner, just like Keith, he bitterly thought.  _ No soulmate to be found amid bits and bytes, fellow Jiro. _

As for what truly mattered; that was a high-level player. Of course, the numbers didn’t always equal a high skill, but what kind of powers did this Paladin have? What could he do in the practicality of a dungeon? And what would he want with an eighth level Barbarian?

Well, Keith supposed he could venture into the dungeons; Lance was nowhere to be found with his food, the game was relaxing enough that he didn’t think about the exam the next morning. What’s another hour or two of chopping monsters and chasing treasures? He replied by accepting the invitation, a portal materializing in front of the two characters.  _ ThunderstormDarkness _ hopped in first.

Those portals were only available for a co-op, as he had learned in the tutorial. While the whole world map was available to be explored as an individual player, certain adventures were only unlockable once a player two had been found.

Was that what  _ Jiro_01 _ was looking for?

They were taken to the entrance of a castle,  _ Carthian’s Lair _ , an alleged maze-like tomb of horrors with traps and trammels at every turn. Somewhere inside was a powerful wizard who had turned an entire village into stone. The patrons wanted the mage dead, and offered a bountiful reward, along with whatever prizes the adventurers found inside.

**_First dungeon?_** _Jiro_01_ asked as their characters were brought to the entrance of the dungeon, threatening gargoyle-like stones towering over them with undying blue flames on their crowns.

_ What’s that supposed to mean _ , Keith wondered. Was this stranger judging him by the character’s level? He pondered on what to reply, but decided that it wasn’t worth too much of a thought.  **_Yeah but don’t worry. I’m sure I can keep up with you._ **

**_I have no doubt about that ;)_ **

_ ThunderstormDarkness _ followed  _ Jiro _ into the adventure.

* * *

The alarm might have rung more than once. Keith didn’t remember. What he did remember, however, was waking up to the human version of an out of tune bugle, yelling that they were going to be late for the exam if Keith didn’t get up immediately.

_ Sure, Lance, sure. Whatever you say, buddy _ .

It took a while to kick in that he had a life-changing exam to attend to, Keith’s eyes snapping open all of a sudden. He didn’t quite register the actual numbers on the screen of his cellphone, but he had little to no time to get dressed, shove some sort of food down his throat and run down the hallways of the dormitory, storm into the campus and make sure he would be inside the classroom where thirteen other students gambled for their academic success.

A day-old slice of pepper and onion pizza would do as breakfast, just as the  _ Space Invaders _ T-shirt he had slept with, unmatched socks and worn-out jeans would also do as an exam attire — it was Astrophysics, not the Council of Fashion Designers of America.

He was already down the hallway when he sniffed the air and cursed himself for not changing shirts. His breath, too,  _ ugh _ . Onions had been an awful choice, but he would have to roll with it.

Keith ran faster than Lance when his life depended on it, and both of their lives were hanging on the line between arriving on time to sit on their intended desks to solve the exam and meeting a closed door that would only open once the three hours had zeroed down. For anyone unpreoccupied, their running figures were nothing but hazy flashes, a breeze even though the windows were closed.

Lance grabbed onto the fabric of Keith’s shirt to balance himself on a curve, nearly knocking him out of balance, but they both lowered their heads to gain speed in the final sprint to the exam room. 

Everyone was already sitting with their pens in hand, the assistant teacher prepared to distribute the sheets— _ oh no. _

_ Fuck fate and how it kicks Keith in the balls every turn. _

“Hey! I’m glad you made it, Keith.”

The sweet timbre of that voice had Keith’s legs shaking like jello, unable to direct themselves to one of the two empty seats. A hand on his shoulder grounded him in place, had him ready to grow roots on that same spot. He rolled his eyes to see  _ Titanium. A chemical element, a silvery grey metal of Group 4 of the periodic table. It is a lightweight (or that’s how he made Keith feel in his presence), high-strength (that  _ body _ ), low-corrosion (unlike Keith’s heart, already a puddle) structural metal and is used for parts in high-speed aircraft. _

Those were Shiro’s eyes, and if Keith had ever dared to dream what an ideal soulmate would look like, Takashi Shirogane would be the perfect picture of unattainableness.

“And I’m  _ Lance _ .” The idiot spoke from behind Keith, shoving him forward and out of his trance, “Hi. It’s McClain? I should be right after him on the list?”

“Yes, of course. Take a seat, both of you,” Shiro motioned to the chairs and hurried to distribute the test sheets to make sure every student would be ready to start writing the moment the bell rang. He walked across the rows of individual desks, leaving the exam sheet upside down on the table, as he spoke, “I’m TA Shirogane, as most of you know, and I’ll be overlooking your exam. Best of luck. Thermodynamics isn’t that hard, you guys got this. When you get to fourth grade you’ll see what’s  _ really _ hard.”

Shiro’s chuckle, with a hint of sadistic energy, had Keith yelping where he sat, silently nibbling on his lip and readjusting on the chair. It wasn’t like he wasn’t already terrified, and the fact that he had spent nearly the whole night awake playing a stupid game and talking to some stranger (who was actually very nice) about anything but thermodynamics didn’t help much.

His mind was as blank as the answer sheet before him.

_ Fuck. _

A large hand cupped his shoulder, gently massaging it the way only Shiro did. Keith sighed and looked up at the TA, fighting against the self-preservation instinct that told him to look away for his own good. “Remember what we studied, Keith. You can do this. I believe in you.”

That was… all he needed to hear. That someone else believed that Keith would beat the shit out of those formulas, that he would hold the concepts and laws of thermodynamics down by the neck and punch them into submission.

“Thank you, Shiro.”

The bell rang, he flipped the exam sheet and his blank mind became filled with little mental pictures of Shiro.

He tried to think of all the afternoons when Shiro —certainly— had something better to do but still chose to sit with him in the library, as the sun hid behind the horizon and covered the two of them in warm light, the light that looked beautiful upon Shiro’s defined jawline, that highlighted his cheekbones, that bathed him in a passion that Keith could only dream of touching. How Shiro frowned when he was super concentrated, how he would break the frown whenever his eyes met Keith’s, how his mouth twisted into a smile whenever he leaned closer to help Keith understand that  _ “two systems each in thermal equilibrium with a third system are in thermal equilibrium to each other.” _

That was the law to be applied to the first problem.  _ Alright. _

Maybe Keith could do this.

His stomach growled some time during the exam, and that was the only time in the whole three hours that Keith looked away from the sheet. That was also when he noticed Shiro’s eyes were still on him, but he pretended that the noise must’ve been louder than it had seemed at first, for in a room with nothing but the tapping and scribbling of pens, the brute noise of his starved belly had to deviate some looks and not only Shiro’s.

He had met Takashi Shirogane a long time ago. It wasn’t really that long, but it was more than enough to be able to say that he knew Shiro, not in the superficial sense most people would say it, but Keith truly, undeniably,  _ knew  _ Shiro. Keith liked to think that he knew him on a deeper level, in all those hidden layers, he liked to dream that he knew Shiro in ways no one else knew him or ever would. But as the years dragged on, painfully stalling, Keith realized that knowing Shiro didn’t give him the right to assume that the love he held for him would be reciprocated.

Shiro loved him, yes. But… not like  _ that _ .

_ He sees you as a brother, kid, _ Adam, oh that dreaded fuck, the name bitter even in Keith’s head, had once said, long ago, even before the tense break-up with Shiro,  _ You’re never going to be anything else to him. _

Keith had read somewhere, a magazine or some shit, that one of the privileges of being a friend was being able to be beside the one you love. And he had come to terms with it. Kind of.

The Shiro in the classroom, however, looked tired. There were dark circles under his eyes, lids a little droopy, bicoloured hair a little messier than usual. Even the belt had missed a loop on his jeans as if it had been shoved in a hurry. 

Shiro was never careless. Could it be that Takashi Shirogane had gotten up late as well? 

Keith quickly smiled at him and dove back into the final problem.

* * *

The results of the exam were to come out in a week, and during that week Keith’s butt might as well have been sown to the chair at the desk of his dorm. Lance had gone home for his  _ Abuelita’s _ birthday, and even if he called nearly every day, it was a peace of mind to be alone.

Well. For the most part.

**_AHHH that was amazing!_ ** Jiro typed as Keith’s avatar collected the treasure for both of them; the brave Paladin couldn’t do that himself, for he was dead in a corner,  _ again _ . Maybe in the near future, Jiro would learn to stay alive throughout their quests. 

**_That was too close, Jiro, I’m at 13 HP! Another blow and we would’ve failed the quest and we’d have to do it all over again._ **

A large pink crystal rose from the ashes of the defeated Dragon, and when  _ ThunderstormDarkness _ picked it up, they were teleported to the tavern, where their health began replenishing at a slow pace. 

**_I may forget to pack torches, but I’m glad I brought my trusty Barbarian along ;))))))_ **

Despite himself, Keith chuckled at those words. He had been levelling up with Jiro, going to the toughest dungeons they could find in the quest board just for the heck of it, and by then  _ ThunderstormDarkness  _ was a level 287 Barbarian, with an evolved armour that (finally) covered more than his crotch and axes powered up by the soul he had acquired from killing a witch. Jiro had grown a few levels too, but the higher the level, the longer it took to obtain the necessary experience points.

**_I cannot fathom how you survived this long without me to carry you._ **

**_Me neither, really. It’s like I wasn’t even playing Monsters & Mana. It’s a lot more fun with you._ **

They had developed what could be considered a friendship, if not for the barrier of their computers. Even the game itself, it kept bringing an annoying pop-up announcing that  _ ThunderstormDarkness _ had found a soulmate and he was one click away from confirming it with  _ Jiro_01 _ .

Keith shook his head and dismissed the notification for what felt like the tenth time that day alone. The game itself was pretty fun, with awesome lore and interesting quests, they never went into the same dungeon twice, and there was always another map to explore. If not for this soulmate subplot,  _ ugh _ , it would be one of the games Keith could see himself playing for a very long time. 

**_You declined it again._ ** Jiro typed, and Keith held his breath. So he had noticed it too.

**_I don’t believe in soulmates. Do you?_ **

**_I do believe that you cross paths with certain people for a reason. What that means, I don’t know for certain, but I know I wouldn’t be the guy I am today without the influence of some very special people, you feel?_ **

That reasoning had Keith intrigued. It sounded so much like something Shiro would say, the way Shiro would say it, twisting the truth into an embellished version that almost made you believe it because he did too. That’s just how Shiro was, genuine to the core, capable of showing you the world through his eyes in the most magical of ways. But alas. Jiro was not Shiro.

_ No one _ was like Shiro.

Keith decided to cut the conversation with a comical blow to Jiro’s pride.  **_Anyway, I think my ThunderstormDarkness deserves someone who doesn’t die fighting cave bats. Maybe a priestess, or an elf._ **

**_Hey, that was one time!_ ** Jiro argued, and their banter became lighter instantly, their HP bars gradually filling. There were ways to quicken the process, like purchasing food items at the tavern counter, but it was somehow of an unspoken rule between the two, that neither of them would resort to that. They used the time it took to heal from their quest to talk and share a little bit about their personal lives on the private chat window they had.

What he had gathered from the person playing Jiro wasn’t too much to accumulate into actual knowing someone, but he did know that the player was twenty-five, finishing his post-graduate (another space nerd, much like Shiro and himself), was lactose intolerant, and didn’t really play any more video games except for _ M&M _ . Also, he was currently single and pretty hooked on this other guy who didn’t really seem to love him back.

_ Big same, Jiro. Big same. _

But in return, Keith hadn’t told much to the stranger across the screen either (besides sharing his age, food interests, and tales of the annoying roommate he had to live with), but he had been anxious enough about the exam to share that the result sheets would be posted at midnight, on a private university website.

**_It’s going to be fine,_** _Jiro_01_ promised, as if he had any authority over fate. Shiro would do the same, assuring him with that soft voice, and make him believe in himself, and— _stop. Shut up. Stop comparing them, you’re being an asshole._

Speaking of Shiro, however, Keith should get into the shower (the first of the week); he had promised Shiro he would go over to his dorm room across campus so that they’d check the results together. A ball of anxiety curled up in his gut, and suddenly he didn’t know if he was more scared of his grade or the fact that he was going to see Shiro.

**_In fact, I should go._ ** He typed on the M&M private chat,  **_Gotta go see a friend before the results come out._ **

**_That’s alright. I’m waiting for a friend to come over anyway. You tell me the grade you got in that exam as soon as you know it, okay? I’m rooting for you!_ **

* * *

The night had long set in Arizona, the dark blue drowning the remnants of a horribly warm day with the desert wind. It was a short walk from the cafeteria to the post-graduate dormitories, and Keith knew his way there like the back of his hand or the stars above him.

The building was no different from the one he was residing in, the same several floors, the same kind of cranky elevator —always take the stairs,  _ always _ — and the same gutter smell of the common bathrooms. For the most part, it was more silent than Keith’s building, maybe because the post-grad students had their own room instead of being paired up with a roommate.

Ah, Keith couldn’t wait for the day he’d have his own college room.

He skipped up the stairs, two steps at a time, more out of habit than out of rush. In fact, he held himself back in the hallway, catching his breath and just delaying the fact that Shiro waited for him a few meters away. The third door to the left, wooden surface deprived of any decoration aside from the plaque that read “T. Shirogane”, unlike all the other doors on that floor —some with yellow fairy lights, others with photographs, or drawings, flags.

Ten minutes to midnight. 

His phone vibrated and the loud  _ beep beep _ sound of an incoming text message echoed in the whole fucking hallway. So much for hanging back discreetly, huh. Shiro’s door opened within seconds, the brightest star in the galaxy hanging in his smile.

“Keith, there you are! I just texted you to ask if you’d forgotten about me.”

How could he  _ ever _ ?

“Sorry, uh… I’m just nervous about the grade.” Keith lied, but not really, it wasn’t a lie; he did find out, however, that he was more terrified of being alone with Shiro than finding out his grade. 

Or maybe it was the fear of failing again, and this time, in front of Shiro, after he had taken so much of his own time to help Keith study. Or maybe it was just because Shiro would touch his shoulder and say that it was okay, that he could do it as many times as it took to get it right, that there was no real rush.

Keith didn’t want to fail, but mostly, he didn’t want to let Shiro down.

“What’s up with the ceremony?” Shiro laughed, “Come in.”

Shiro’s room was a mess, really, and Keith didn’t expect any different. It was an organized mess, coded in accord to Shiro’s line of thought. He knew where to find the things he was looking for, even if said things were beneath a pile of laundry, in the bottom of a drawer or under months of forgetting to clean the dust under the bed. It was endearing, how the only place that Shiro actually made an effort to keep clean was his workspace.

A laptop with the screensaver activated sat in the middle of the desk, a few books piled up next to it to be used as a temporary mousepad. Shiro had already put a second chair for Keith to sit on, and he was certain that he had logged into the university website as well. 

All that was left was to wait.

And he had waited the whole week just fine, partially thanks to Jiro, but the final minutes before the results were always more distressing.

Shiro poured an exaggerated amount of  _ Fruit Loops _ on a bowl with warmed oat milk and cheerfully brought it to the desk, along with two spoons. He sat on his chair with his legs crossed. “Want some?”

“Thanks, I’m good.” The thought of eating was nauseating, let alone those super sugary breakfast cereals. He didn’t know how Shiro was capable of eating those, but there he was, shoving colourful spoonful after spoonful into his mouth, chewing in complete, utter peace, unaware that his mere presence was so unsettling for Keith, so provocative, so…

A sigh.

Why did it have to be like this? Keith found himself wishing he could be back into his own hole; by then  _ ThunderstormDarkness _ ’s health bar should be full, as well as Jiro’s, so they could venture into one more dungeon before they sleep. Or maybe, like the nights before, they could go on until the early hours of dawn.

But alas. There was no escaping the grade. And worse, there was no escaping the little storm of Shiro’s eyes. Was he upset? Shiro touched the mouse to make the laptop come back alive, the website in full view. He logged in with the saved password and, one minute past midnight, there was Keith’s name, in the middle of so many. Green. 98/100.

“Congrats. I knew you could do it.” With that stoic tone, Shiro looked… pensive.

The cereals became soggy in the warm milk as he poked at them, jaw still working around the last spoonful, faint crunching noises louder inside Keith’s head to desperately fill the silence.

“Is... something wrong?” Shiro asked after a while.

Might as well have stabbed Keith through the heart, because yes, there were a lot of things wrong, starting by the fact that it had started to be physically painful to hang around Shiro because of how much he loved him. How ridiculous he felt, nibbling on his lower lip for what felt like an eternity.

“I’m pretty sure you’ve been avoiding me, Keith.”

If any sound came out of Keith’s mouth, it was little less than a mumble. An excuse.

“I thought you were just nervous about your grade, but…” Shiro continued, “I could’ve helped you, I could’ve reviewed your answers with you to assure you that you’d be more than fine.”

Shiro put the near-empty bowl next to the computer, taking the mouse again to close some Word documents he had undoubtedly been reviewing. His post-grad work never ended, not even when the rest of the campus was in Summer break. Shiro always worked so hard, it was one of the things that Keith admired in him so much. Resilient. Dedicated.  _ Beautiful. _

“Then, I supposed you weren’t replying to my texts because you had your phone on silent mode, but I just heard the ringtone on the hallway. But it’s clear that you simply don’t want to be around me.”

_ What…? No, no, that’s all wrong— _

“It hurts but I understand. Maybe you realized some things, like… I don’t know… I’m… really not good at this, Keith.”

Out of the tabs that Shiro was closing, the apps he was minimizing, Keith choked at the sight of one particular, easily recognizable icon. Two swords crossed behind the initials  _ M&M _ , leaves and forests behind it in the little square.  _ It… couldn’t be. _ Shiro’s voice became distant, barely comprehensible to the ears of a very confused Keith.

“Maybe you realized I like you a little too much, and maybe that’s not something you want, and that’s... fine.”

“What’s that?” Keith pointed at the screen when Shiro started the game, interrupting him.

“Uh… It’s this game I’ve been playing. Sorry, I just want to know if my friend already knows his grade. Have you been listening to me, Keith?”

_ Twenty-five years old. Post-grad space nerd. Lactose intolerant. Cat lover, a bad break-up.  _ How couldn’t he fucking know?!

Shiro sighed as the game loaded, clearly distressed and frustrated. “Keith, I’m trying to be serious for a moment here. Can you please listen to me?”

“Shiro. Are you Jiro?”

“I _ — _ w-what? What’s that got to do with _ — _ ”

Keith didn’t press further. He thought he might break if he were to open his mouth again. What was the meaning of this coincidence? What a blast the universe ought to have, laughing at how incredibly bizarre the whole situation was. He saw realization light up Shiro’s face soon enough, followed by the same degree of disbelief that Keith shared.

“You’re…  _ Thunderstorm _ .” Keith didn’t have to nod at that, lips sewn together in a thin line. Shiro’s face became red, a blush that extended all the way to his ears and Keith smiled at that sight.

Mere chance brought the two into the same path. That same mere chance made Keith fall in love with Shiro, and again, chance made them play the same game, at the same time; the game with a subplot around  _ chance _ . 

And chance made Shiro love Keith back.

“Well, that’s embarrassing.” Shiro laughed bitterly, rubbing his forehead. “Even the game thinks we’re soulmates then, eh? Fucking joke.”

And Shiro had been in the exact same shoes as Keith? Not knowing, doubting, suffering over the possibility of not being loved back?

Soulmate or not, starcrossed or not, Keith knew what was right. He knew that the power that brought stars together in constellations was the same power that had brought him and Shiro together. The hand that curled around Shiro’s collar and tugged him closer, it was the power that brought their lips together, the stellar collision of their kiss expanding like gravitational waves throughout the rest of the universe.

It may have been fate bringing them together, but it was up to them to make sure they would never part again.

Shiro broke the kiss and Keith realized he had been holding his own breath too.  _ Fuck _ , Shiro whispered, his hand cupping Keith’s chin and they kissed again, this time with more conviction. They said nothing else, for there was no need to.

**_Your soulmate is the light of your life; your raison-d’etre, your joy. Your beginning and your end._ **

That was exactly what it felt like. Maybe the game wasn’t as glitchy as Keith initially thought. 

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Swordfights and Soulmates (The 'Soulmates? In this Economy?!' Remix)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24734572) by [DropsOfAutumn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DropsOfAutumn/pseuds/DropsOfAutumn)




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